Winch launching isn't that common in the US (gliding is neither), so most planes are towed by aircraft. In Europe winch launching is more common, but still is usually limited to 1500' AGL or so, even along the military airbases we use for winching. That might not be enough and for teaching students it's way too short, only a couple of minutes of "free flight".
These guys are changing that:
http://www.youtube.com/v/-Dw6r_1r91M&hl=en_US&fs=1&
A good 9000' of cable, altitude record 5700' (for the time being) and it might very well be realistic to winch up to 10,000' AGL.
The cables are very light plastic since an appropriate steel cable weighs around 1000 lbs at these lengths, dyneema and such are maybe 1/10th of that.
Total operational cost of this system is around 7 euro's a launch (10US$)
These guys are changing that:
http://www.youtube.com/v/-Dw6r_1r91M&hl=en_US&fs=1&
A good 9000' of cable, altitude record 5700' (for the time being) and it might very well be realistic to winch up to 10,000' AGL.
The cables are very light plastic since an appropriate steel cable weighs around 1000 lbs at these lengths, dyneema and such are maybe 1/10th of that.
Total operational cost of this system is around 7 euro's a launch (10US$)
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